A U.S. Navy helicopter and fighter jet crashed separately in the South China Sea on Sunday, just 45 minutes apart, while all crew members were safely rescued, officials said. The incidents coincided with President Donald Trump’s ongoing Asia tour.
At approximately 2:45 p.m. local time, an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73 went down while conducting routine operations from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. The Navy confirmed that all three crew members were rescued by a search-and-rescue team.
Roughly 30 minutes later, at 3:15 p.m., an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jet from Strike Fighter Squadron 22 also crashed during routine operations. Both crew members ejected safely and were recovered by personnel from Carrier Strike Group 11. Each F/A-18 fighter costs over $60 million, and this marks the fourth Super Hornet lost by the U.S. Navy since late last year.
The USS Nimitz, the Navy’s oldest operational aircraft carrier, is scheduled for decommissioning next year. The causes of both crashes are still under investigation, with Navy officials withholding the exact location of the carrier for operational security reasons.
The crashes come amid heightened tensions in the South China Sea, where China claims sovereignty over much of the region and has constructed military facilities on various reefs. The U.S. has conducted regular operations to ensure “freedom of navigation” in response to these claims, which ignore the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
The timing also overlaps with President Trump’s Asia trip, beginning with a visit to Malaysia on October 26 and continuing with scheduled talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, focused primarily on trade.
The incidents follow a series of previous crashes involving Super Hornets. In December last year, the USS Gettysburg accidentally shot down an F/A-18 from the USS Truman. In April and May, two additional F/A-18s slid off aircraft carriers in the Red Sea or failed to catch the arresting wire during landing, plunging into the ocean.
The Navy emphasized that investigations are ongoing for both Sunday crashes, underscoring the operational challenges of carrier-based aviation amid routine missions in contested waters.
